What is Amazon CloudFront?
Amazon CloudFront is AWS’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) with over 750 Points of Presence in more than 100 cities worldwide, complemented by over 1,140 embedded Points of Presence. The CDN caches content at geographically distributed locations and delivers it from the nearest location to users. The result: faster load times, reduced backend load, and lower bandwidth costs.
Key Features
- Global network with 750+ Points of Presence and 15 Regional Edge Caches
- CloudFront Functions and Lambda@Edge for edge computing
- Free SSL certificates via AWS Certificate Manager
- HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 (QUIC) support
- Integrated DDoS protection with AWS Shield Standard
- Optional flat-rate plans with bundled WAF, DNS, and edge compute
Common Use Cases
Website Acceleration: Static assets from S3 are delivered significantly faster through CloudFront with edge caching and HTTP/2. Visitors worldwide receive content from the nearest location.
Video Streaming: CloudFront supports HLS, DASH, and CMAF for live and on-demand streaming. Edge locations cache video segments and offload origin servers even with very large numbers of concurrent viewers.
API Acceleration: Dynamic APIs also benefit from CloudFront through Origin Shield, TCP optimizations, and Lambda@Edge for edge-side processing.
Benefits
- Global reach with low latency
- Flexible pricing models: pay-per-use or predictable flat-rate
- Native integration with AWS services
- DDoS mitigation with AWS Shield Standard included
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with Amazon CloudFront: CDN architecture, choosing the right pricing model, cache strategy optimization, Lambda@Edge development, and security hardening with WAF.
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Amazon CloudFront cost?
CloudFront offers two pricing models: classic pay-as-you-go based on data transfer and requests, or newer flat-rate plans (Free, Pro, Business, Premium) that bundle CDN, WAF, DDoS protection, Route 53, and other services into one monthly price with no overage charges. Exact prices are listed on the official pricing page.
CloudFront Functions vs. Lambda@Edge: What is the difference?
CloudFront Functions are ultra-lightweight (a few KB, sub-millisecond latency) for header manipulation or URL rewrites. Lambda@Edge offers full runtime power for more complex logic like authentication or calls to external services.
How does cache invalidation work?
Cache invalidation removes objects before TTL expiration. You can invalidate individual paths or wildcards. Using versioning in filenames instead of regular invalidations is usually the better approach.
Can CloudFront work with non-AWS origins?
Yes, CloudFront supports any custom origins via HTTP/HTTPS. On-premises servers, other cloud providers, or SaaS applications can serve as origins.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of AWS (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by AWS.